Interview: Graham Denham | Jon Kondelik (Blood Brothers)

Graham – Jose texted me at one point and said I want to talk with you and Jon and I want you both to watch this movie “Compulsion” with me. He said don’t read about it or anything, he said I just want you to come over and watch this movie with me. So after we watched the movie we all kind of sat around and Jose said here is what I want to do. I have a very David Lynch approach round based around a murder case. I want you guys to star in a movie that I am going to write.

Jon – Yeah and at the time I did even think about producing it, all he said was I just want you guys to be the brothers. I said maybe I could produce it for you. He got us the script pretty quickly and we were in production what was it February of 2014?

Graham – Yeah, we were off to the races pretty quick. We were in pre-production and shooting a month after that.

Jon- It really was a great shoot. Everyone was having a good time laughing!

Graham- It actually was pretty smooth especially for an independent film. And having the kind of players we did like Barbara Crampton, Ken Foree, Hannah and Krystal.

Did the two of you have a favorite moment on-set?

Jon- Definitely it was trying to wear both hats as a producer and actor. There was a scene between me and Barbara and basically we were intense and yelling in each other’s faces. The emotions were high. After we did this take we were staring at each other and waiting for that cut and we hear that cut and Barbara just looks at and we just like, oh cool! That was a fun moment!

Graham- There was a lot of insane moments. It wasn’t a funny movie to make so there wasn’t a lot of room for crazy bloopers because we were always pretty intense. I think one of my favorite moments was between Jon and I. It is the last fifteen minutes of the film. We have this epic fight that we had to choreograph with a stunt-coordinator and then I think towards the end of production we had a different stunt coordinator come on at one point and he didn’t know all of the other stunts we had done with the other guy. We had to just do what we remembered from the original stunts. When you get to a movie-set it is always different once you are there. Me and Jon just had to work together to figure out how we were going to fight each other. There was one moment when I slipped and Jon kicked me in the face and I had a bruise under my chin for like a week.

Jon- If we are sharing bruising stories, Graham is having to choke me and you are getting really intense and Jose was like cut because I am getting what I need. Graham was so into that he was still choking me and I am tapping him on the shoulder (Graham is laughing) and going dude, dude, you are still choking me. If you see the film when he is choking me that is not make-up.

For both of you the scenes are intense, how did both of you prepare?

Jon- Being on both sides as the producer and actor was tough. There would be times where I would tell people to leave me alone especially it was a really heavy scene. I think Graham brought his A game all the time.

Graham- For me, you talk about preparing for a movie. It is crazy for me because I had never played a role like that before. I had been in films before and I had worked with Jose before but I had never had such a pivotal role where a lot rested on my shoulders. The movie was us. At the end of the day Jon and I were on-set and on-screen ever single moment for the most part. I took a month and half watching serial killer videos and interviews. I watched an interview with the Ice Man, Dahmer and Charles Manson and I was looking for their little ticks that they had.

What was it like working with the director Jose?

Jon- Easy, the shoot was very smooth. He always keeps a light set. He is an avid ghost hunter. He is really good at making the set feel like a family.

Graham- He is great!

What would the two of you like to say to the fans?

Graham- Oh man, I mean I hope that everybody enjoys what we were trying to do because you know the movie is not the kind of movie where you go, oh I liked it, and it was okay! You either love it or you hate it because it is such a weird out of the boil kind of film. It is a live-action cartoon, serial killer dream. I think we made a really cool movie that is not the norm.

Jon-I would say that I think we set out to make something more challenging. I definitely think we achieved that with this surreal nightmare we achieved.

What is next and will there be a sequel?

Jon- It will be playing in theaters and across the country. It is doing well across the world and people in the U.K. will have in February. I am not sure what is next. Blood Brothers 2 maybe?!

Graham- Blood Brother 2! I have been directing a lot and working with Eli Roth.